The International Association of Fire Chiefs on March 13 issued a series of sharply worded challenges to national code organizations to address a number of underlying fire safety issues it believes are in need of review in the wake of recent nightclub disasters in Rhode Island and Chicago, and a rehabilitation center fire in Connecticut.

The challenges were included in an official statement of position that was presented by Chief Jackie Gibbs of Marietta, Ga., chairman of the IAFC Fire and Life Safety Section, to a specially convened review meeting of the National Fire Protection Association Technical Committee on Assembly Occupancies in Quincy, Mass. Also in attendance were Chief Bob DiPoli, IAFC second vice president; Chief Roger Bradley, IAFC director of the New England division; and Garry Briese, IAFC executive director.

Speaking on behalf of the IAFC and its president, Chief Randy Bruegman, Gibbs presented a series of recommendations that were aimed not only at the NFPA but also at the International Code Council and included issues that the organization believes must also be addressed by municipal leaders, the building industry, the public and the fire service itself.

“We should all be saying, ‘Enough is enough; we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore,'” Chief Gibbs stated. Saying that the recent tragedies are “a clear indication of the need for the code development process to change the way it looks at fire and life safety in the United States,” the IAFC outlined a number of issues that the ICC and NFPA should immediately address, including the following:

1. All NFPA and ICC codes must address the requirements that new commercial buildings, particularly places of assembly, be equipped with fire sprinklers and monitored alarm systems. No exceptions.

2. Eliminate the concept of “grandfathering” from the codes entirely. All “non-compliant, pre-existing” occupancies should be required to come into full compliance with the most current fire and building codes within a specified phase-in timeframe.

3. 3) Allow the partial sprinklering of residential occupancies in the areas most likely to experience a fire, such as kitchens, heating systems and garages.

4. Local governments must re-examine obstacles they may have created that serve as disincentives to the installation or retrofitting of buildings with fire sprinkler systems by building owners.

5. Local jurisdictions must provide adequate funding and staffing for sufficient fire inspection personnel.

6. Prohibit fireworks and pyrotechnics from indoor use entirely—under any circumstance.

For its part, the IAFC also challenged the fire service as a whole to do the following:

• Rigorously, uniformly and fairly enforce codes,

• Establish policies and protective systems where local politicians can be held publicly accountable for any interference with the enforcement process, and

• Ensure that every fire inspector is trained and certified.

“We must do everything we can to eliminate these horrific incidents and senseless losses of life,” the IAFC concluded, “and we are asking the NFPA and the ICC to take aggressive steps to immediately address those code applications that we all know will save precious lives in the future. The 99 families in Rhode Island deserve no less.”